Scientists love to give themselves “ethical guidelines” — only to “reevaluate” and revise those guidelines when they are no longer convenient. A perfect recent example of this came this May when scientists in two separate studies reported keeping embryos alive, healthy and developing for 12-13 days. In both studies the embryos grew autonomously and began processes that lead to organ … Read More
Your 2015 Bioethics Challenge
Should you choose to accept it, Zachary Gappa from the Center for a Just Society has a New Year’s challenge for pro-lifers: this new year I beg people to take some time to learn more about bioethics. The stakes are high. Our definitions of life, death, and human dignity are up for grabs, so we must not abdicate our moral duty … Read More
Abortion is Not the Only Pro-Life Battle Before Us
Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins writes at HLI’s Truth and Charity Forum: I’m not saying to abandon the use of the term “pro-life” altogether, but we must realize that the term “pro-life” allows the person using it to give it their own definition. For me and others I work with, it means that we are dedicated to … Read More
BioTalk, Ep. 2: 3-Parent Embryos and the Brave New U.S.
A new episode of BioTalk, in which Rebecca Taylor and I talk about all things bioethics — especially issues related to human biotechnology — is finally here! In this episode, we talk about scientists experimenting with “three parent embryos” and the “Brave New” United States where there are no restrictions on this or other once unthinkable kinds of human experimentation … Read More
Supreme Court Approves Expanded Fed. ESCR Funding
Last week, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging the legality of Barack Obama’s expanded government support of human embryonic-stem-cell research. Plaintiff’s in the case, which was first filed in a lower court in 2009, revolved around the prohibition by Congress of funds for “research in which an embryo is destroyed, discarded or injured”, a phrase … Read More
Other Court Cases to Keep an Eye On
While the country continues to processes yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling and what it all means, Rebecca Taylor reminds us of another court battle we should keep and eye on: The ACLU and the Association for Molecular Pathology have sued Myriad Genetics and the U.S. Patent Office over Myriad’s patent on the BRCA I and II genes. The initial ruling, issued … Read More
Fox’s Stem Cell Honesty
Three years ago on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Mehmet Oz told Michael J. Fox that his quest down the yellow brick road of embryonic stem cell research may lead to nowhere. It didn’t seem to fully register with him at the time, but now he may be catching on. In an interview with Dianne Sawyer, Fox and his Foundation … Read More
A Bold Statement from Newt on ESC Research and IVF
This didn’t get a whole lot of press, but it certainly caught my attention. While courting pro-life Christians in Florida on Sunday, Newt Gingrich said that he would ban all embryonic stem cell (ESC) research – even research on ‘left-over’ embryos from IVF labs – and take a serious look at the way fertility clinics are managed. From the Christian … Read More
Appeal Process Moving Forward for Federal Stem Cell Funding Suit
In 2009 two researchers filed a lawsuit claiming that new National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines easing restrictions on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research are a violation the Dicky-Wicker Amendment, a budgetary amendment prohibiting federal tax dollars from being used to create or destroy human embryos for scientific research. In August 2010, district court judge Royce Lamberth agreed and … Read More
Stephen Colbert on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Today Marc Barns posted his favorite Colbert Catholic moments. This made me think of one of my personal favorite Colbert moments: his 2006 interview with bioethicist Lee Silver. Silver says plenty of stupid things during the whole interview, but the stupidest is when he tells Colbert that the cells on his arm are human life in the same way that … Read More